Syllabus Information

1. General information

1.1. Aims of the course

-To define and justify the concept of Educational Counselling by analyzing the historical evolution of the terms and models with which it has been associated up to the present.

-To understand the nature of educational counselling processes thanks to the principles that underlie them.

-To analyze recent theoretical approaches in counselling, and theoretical advancements in the associated areas of intervention.

-To describe the organizational and functional structure of counselling within the educational context of Spain.

-To demarcate the specific areas of psychological and pedagogical counselling and orientation.

-To describe the contexts within which educational counselling takes place.

-To familiarize oneself with the available counselling programs and with other forms of intervention.

-To acquire the fundamental knowledge, attitudes, and skills that enable the trainee to carry out psychological and pedagogical interventions in a series of different contexts and areas.

-To acquire notions of communication in counselling from a scientific, collaborative, and therapeutic perspective.

-To acquire the capacity to respond immediately to specific demands that arise in complex educational situations.

1.2. Context and importance of this course in the degree

This optional semestral course equivalent to four ECTS credits toward the Masters degree in Educational Counselling is justified through the fact that counselling is regarded as a quality factor in education that should be part of every school’s structure and organization. The course aspires to make a decisive contribution to the training of counsellors for the exertion of their professional tasks. The course content focuses on two main subjects: sensitivity to the diversity of pupils and their families on the one hand, and communication as a core task on the other. The complexity of the kind of communication involved in counselling is associated with the meaning and significance of counselling in itself: counselling, as an activity, is articulated through a diverse series of theoretical referents and languages, and is subject to multiple shades of nuance on the part of all communicators involved, in many diverse contexts that determine which strategies the counsellor should choose to adopt. The course content is subdivided into three closely interrelated modules: the first one comprises eight closely connected subjects associated with the area of school counselling; the second module presents the most relevant aspects involved in counselling interviews from a collaborative – and at times therapeutic – guidance perspective; the third module features a series of gradable activities and presents the most important materials available for teachers to design learning processes.

Counselling, as a process, is essential in education, but it is likewise thoroughly complex, since a number of social, economical, political, and family factors impinge upon it. The mastery of communication and technical tools is the primordial factor that enables the counsellor to organize strategies and methodology. Verbal and non-verbal (even digital) language are some of the tools around which the communicative counselling process revolves. In view of the complexity involved in counselling, the trainee needs to have a theoretical and ethical basis that is context-specific and directly related with the pupils’ social situation, but which also respond to the current global social situation in which we are all implicated.

The profile of a graduate in counselling is that of an educational professional with abilities and skills that permit him/her 1) to detect and evaluate specific educational needs that require support, and to carry out the appropriate psycho-educational intervention; 2) to counsel pupils in their school progress while orienting them professionally; 3) to orient schoolteachers toward the optimization of teaching-learning processes; 4) to attend to the problems of pupils with special needs, as well as in special curricular areas; 5) to counsel and orient families; 6) to design and evaluate orientation and tutorial plans that are sensitive to diversity, as well as specific plans that put that sensitivity into practice. This course subject, The Educational Counselling Process, prepares the counsellor for future challenges by providing fundamental training in the area of psycho-educational orientation that is essential in order to exert one’s profession as a counsellor in schools.

1.3. Recommendations to take this course

In this course, personal communication is conceived as the central axis around which counselling revolves; technological tools and means of communication are regarded as supplementary resources. By taking part in the course’s activities and tests, the student should learn to analyze and form a critical attitude toward such strategies and processes as indispensable aspects that form part of the special task of school counselling. In order to follow the course, it is important that the student make use of the MOODLE platform while attending theoretical and practical class sessions and doing work outside the classroom. Equally important: the student should already have taken courses in psychology, pedagogy, or psycho-pedagogy, since much of this course’s content builds upon knowledge previously acquired in those fields.

2. Learning goals

2.1. Competences

CG02 - To foster a spirit of harmonic coexistence in the classroom that encourages and stimulates learning. To support pupil development on all levels, orienting them academically and professionally on the basis of their psychological, social and family characteristics.

CG03 - To critically, reflectively support and supervise the learning process in pupils on the basis of the most relevant principles and theories regarding their learning process and how it can be strengthened.

CG04 - To plan, design, organize, and develop the syllabus in the one’s specialty subjects, along with associated teaching and evaluation activities.

CB6 - To have a good grasp of approaches that help students become more original in the development and/or application of ideas (frequently in the context of research and investigation)

CB7 - To know how to apply the knowledge one has acquired, as well as one’s capacity for resolving problems in new or unaccustomed situations that can arise within broader (or multidisciplinary) contexts associated with one’s area of study

CB8 - To be able to assimilate and apply knowledge when faced with the complex situation of having to emit judgments on the basis of incomplete or limited information associated with the ethical and social responsibility of applying one’s expertise and sound judgment

CB9 - To be able to clearly and unambiguously divulge one’s conclusions and expertise (along with their underlying premises) in front of specialized and non-specialized audiences

CB10 - To possess learning abilities that permit one to go on studying on a mostly self-directed, autonomous basis.

Transversal capabilities

CT01 - The capability of reflection and making decisions on a personal, intellectual and social level.

CT02 - The capability of integrating and applying knowledge that enables one to form judgments and resolve problems.

CT03 - The development of self-esteem.

CT04 - The capacity of self-control.

CT05 - The development of self-motivation.

CT06 - The development of the capability of autonomous learning.

CT07 - The capability of communicating ideas and argumentation in front of several different kinds of audiences.

CT08 - The capacity for empathy.

CT09 - The capability of exerting leadership.

CT10 - The capacity to work in a team situation with colleagues and other people.

Specific capabilities

CEOE01 – To be familiar pupils’ psycho-pedagogical characteristics in order to be able to evaluate them and to draft the required reports

CEOE02 – To be familiar with measures in favor of respect for diversity that can be adopted in order to provide appropriate counsel in each case

CEOE03 – To analyze the organization and modus operandi of the school in order to coordinate personal, academic, and professional counselling for the pupils in collaboration with other members of the school team

CEOE04 – To develop the necessary abilities and techniques to be able to adequately counsel families on the subject of their children’s learning and development process

CEOE23 – To know and analyze the characteristics, organization, and modus operandi of educational and psycho-pedagogical counselling services that operate at different levels of the educational system (Infancy, Primary, Secondary, Professional Training, and Pre-University)

CEOE24 – To identify demands, establish objectives, and participate in the design of intervention plans that respond to the institutional analysis of institutions of learning and related systems

CEOE25 – To collaborate in the establishment of collaborative work structures with teachers and other members of the school team, as well as with external professionals who intervene in the school

CEOE26 – To coordinate actions in the neighborhood with all education agents and other services, with particular emphasis on social, health and employment services, in order to achieve a truly coordinated intervention

CEOE27 – To know and have a correct appraisal of current psycho-pedagogical diagnosis techniques

CEOE28 – To evaluate interventions that have been carried out, and, as a consequence, to propose changes to improve them in the future

CEOE29 – To know how to apply preventive community outreach programs

2.2. Learning goals

The content taught in this course establishes the conceptual bases of educational counselling by explaining psychological and pedagogical interventions that help pupils progress academically, professionally, and personally. The course objectives are the following:

1. The student should know and be able to analyze the characteristics, organization, and bases of school counselling services and psycho-pedagogical orientation services that operate at different levels of the educational system (Infancy, Primary, Secondary, Professional Training, Pre-University).

2. The student should be familiar with a series of counselling resources; he/she should be able to identify and analyze the demands and needs that arise in schools.

3. The student should know how to establish objectives and how to participate in designing intervention plans that reflect the results of an institutional analysis of the school and its environment.

4. The student should be work with others in a team by conceiving collaborative work structures with the schoolteachers and with other members of the school community, as well as with external specialists who intervene in the school.

5. The trainee should be able to coordinate actions that can be carried out in the school in collaboration with other neighborhood services as well as with all educational agents, particularly with social, health, and work services, in order to achieve a well-coordinated intervention.

6. The student should know, use, appreciate, and know how to find a series of diagnostic and evaluation techniques.

2.3. Importance of learning goals

This course’s learning results reinforce the strategies and basic processes a counsellor should globally and integrally apply in his/her personal development and in his/her daily work as a counsellor in order to help pupils achieve specific and general development while taking their individual singularities into account. The trainees acquire counselling skills not only designed for work with pupils or groups of pupils, but also for collaboration with all other agents implied in the educational process: the family, the social environment, the teaching environment. Communication resources and digital resources provide support for the counsellor’s activity, and they help him/her navigate the diverse current psychological/clinical tendencies and phenomena. All of this is carried out with a sense for ethical standards and a sensitivity for great differences among individual human beings. Counselling processes also work in favor of helping pupils, educational agents, and families achieve optimal professional and personal development.

3. Assessment (1st and 2nd call)

3.1. Assessment tasks (description of tasks, marking system and assessment criteria)

Types of exams

The final theoretical exam shall consist in a test featuring 35 questions with four proposed answers each, only one of which is correct: this shall apply to students subjected to continual evaluation and to those who have chosen global evaluation. The test shall be graded by applying the following formulas:

Test grade P = A (correct answers) – (errors/n – 1), whereby n is the number of alternative answers (in this case, four).

Grading of the test C = (P X 5) / N, whereby N is the total number of questions. This portion shall count toward 50% of the final grade. Students opting for the continual evaluation method may obtain the remaining 50% by presenting their folder with the 4 practical gradable activities they have chosen: each activity counts for a maximum of one point, and the remaining point is achieved by grading formal aspects, the quality level of reflection and the consulted bibliographical sources.

Evaluation criteria

The theoretical portion of the test shall evaluate the students’ mastery of theoretical-practical knowledge related with the course objectives and capabilities via a series of multiple-choice questions. The practical portion of the test (gradable practical activities or presentation of a specific case, for those who opt for global evaluation) shall evaluate the process contents related with the knowledge of theories and models, resources and tools pertaining to each one of the modules, and their application to hypothetical or real-life cases.

Level of  requirements (qualification criteria and requirements to pass the course)

The requirement levels imply that the student should obtain a minimum of 5 points out of 10 on the global test (building an average among the two portions). If only 4 points are obtained in one of the portions, the score can be averaged with the other portion if the latter has a minimum of 6. Students who wish to be graded by continual evaluation should attend at least 75% of the class sessions. Students opting for global evaluation should communicate their choice to the course professor as soon as possible at the beginning of the semester.

Global test and second round

Students who opt for global evaluation shall take the same test as the others; the remaining five points (50%) are obtained by writing an essay as a response to questions associated with a detailed hypothetical or real-life case described by the professor, reflecting some of the problems and subjects addressed in the course, and uploaded to the Moodle platform. Students who have passed one of the two test portions with 5 points or more (out of 10) may carry their grade over to the second round; thus, they shall only have to take the test portion they did not pass in the first round. The same evaluation system shall be maintained for the third and fourth rounds.

Fifth and sixth round (with a committee of jurors)

The fifth and sixth rounds shall consist in an essay term paper based on a practical task, presented and defended in front of the professor or committee of jurors. It shall be graded on a scale of 0 to 10.

1. The objective consists in designing the programming of an educational counselling activity (based on an analysis of needs); the practical application thereof is optional.
2. The counselled persons can consist of some of the following: the class group, the families, the team of teachers involved in a class, school grade level or educational level, as well as other groups pertaining to the school environment.
3. The student should place him/herself in the hypothetical role of one of the following counselling agents: the tutor of a group; a chief counsellor in a school counselling department; a counsellor for a sector team; a counsellor working in a neighborhood social service; even a counsellor working in a company’s human resources department.
4. Fields of action. The subject of the term paper can be any concrete aspect in which one deems that it would be relevant to intervene in order to satisfy the counselling needs one may have encountered in the hypothetical recipients.
5. The programming of the counselling activity should always be based on an analysis of the recipients’ needs and of their environment. Among other factors, the analysis should foresee that all relevant information should be gathered for the purpose of designing an efficient, effective, and functional intervention; the student should justify his/her choice of techniques and tools.
6. The subject matter is a psycho-pedagogical intervention, not an intervention in didactic areas or in the way a school subject is taught.

Length and presentation of the term paper. The term paper should be ca. 30 printed pages long, single spaced, with 3-cm margins on the right and left, upper and lower page margins. The page number should be at the center of the bottom of the page. The term paper should contain the following sections: 1) a concise description of the intervention’s theoretical basis and justification (for example, if the intervention is associated with social abilities, the student should define what these are, which are the current tendencies in the field, and the theoretical position he/she is adopting, etc.); 2) a brief description of the context (city, community, neighborhood…); 3) a concise description of the school, service team or educational team; 4) a description of who are the recipients of the intervention; 5) an explanation of the analysis of needs (an overview of the information gathered on variables that are relevant to the subject; an indication of which tools have been used and how the information was collected); 6) a justification of the subject or situation that is the object of the intervention program; 7) a justification of who is the counselling intervention agent; 8) a presentation of the program that has been devised, including the following sections: objectives, content, activities, resources, time schedule, and evaluation.

TERM PAPER OUTLINE, FORMAT, AND EVALUATION CRITERIA

a) Front page and table of contents

(Front page: EVERYTHING in CAPITAL LETTERS; complete title of the course; designation of the Masters Degree; Faculty of Education; University of Zaragoza; student forename, surname, and national identity number; centered alignment, font size 12, font type Arial, Times New Roman or any other clear, simple font type for the student forename and surname(s); font size 18 or over for the course title.

On Page 2, the Table of Contents should feature the page numbers on the right (and each page should feature its page number on the page bottom in the center). All four activity folders may be inserted successively into the text, thereby creating one sole document for all activities.

Page

1. Introduction……..………………………………………………………………….….2

Folder 1..…………………………………………………………………………………5

Folder 2……………………………………………………………………………...........

Folder 3……………………………………………………………………………………

Folder 4……………………………………………………………………………………

b) Introduction

-Justify why you are studying this course/subject and refer to its connection with real-life practice in obligatory secondary schools, in upper secondary education, and in educational and psycho-pedagogical counselling teams (EOEPs).

-Why is counselling important in secondary education? What is its usefulness? What are some of its practical applications?

-In a school, what kind of tasks can a counsellor carry out that no other teacher can assume? Concretely, in relation with the school where you carried out the practical activities, which counsellor functions foreseen by law are most developed, which ones less, and why? In the school, what needs have you detected that call for a certain type of intervention and not another? Among all of these, which are of major importance and have not yet been developed (insufficient counsellor training, scarcity of organizational, economic or human resources, of time; resistance on the part of the teaching body, etc.)?

c) Treated subjects

The treated subjects shall be presented in one sole file (WORD or PDF), featuring at least five subfolders (each one corresponding to a practical activity carried out in class); together, these all conform the totality of the course’s practical gradable activities (see previous section), according to the contextualization each student would like to apply to them, and in accordance with the professor’s initial instructions.

d) Conclusions

-A general reflection on what you have learned and gained from this course.

-Of all elements we handled in class, which were the ones you experienced most markedly and concretely in the school or counselling department where you carried out the practical activities?

-To what degree does the theory presented in class adjust to real school counselling situations? In your opinion, what would you omit from the course, or what elements would you add?

-Which other facets, problems, interventions or experiences would you have liked to get to know, but could not because of the school’s specific circumstances?

-In view of your experience in the assigned school, what do you like most about the counselling profession, and what do you like the least?

-What could be a concrete contribution, or how could you concretely contribute to the real-life situation in the school where you carried out the practical assignments? How would you go about it, how would you plan it, and what problems might you eventually encounter?

-What professional path will you be taking in the years to come? (preparing qualification exams for teacher posts; working privately or freelancing; finding a post in a private company, of what kind? or other job activities related, or not, with educational, professional, organizational counselling, etc.).

-Basically, this section consists in a qualitative self-evaluation of the learning process, although it can also include a numerical grade for orientation purposes.

 e) Bibliography and webliography

-List the sources you consulted to prepare your term paper folder, particularly those for 2: Introduction and 3: Treated Subjects.

 f) Appendices (if applicable)

Intervention models or protocols in specific cases and subjects.

Tables, graphics, or photos of interest associated with the course subject or with the school where you carried out the practical activity.

Any other material you consider relevant.

g) Final evaluation. By turning in the term paper activity portfolio, students shall be exempted from having to take the practical portion of the final exam. A submission deadline shall be established, the date of which shall lie before the official exam. Students can turn in their material on the MOODLE platform by handing in a USB stick to the professor, or by sending the corresponding document to the professor’s e-mail address prior to the submission deadline. The turned-in portfolio of practical activities can correspond to up to 50% of the final grade. In the portfolio, the student should present four of the activities treated in class; each one of them will count for up to 1 point (out of 5). The remaining fifth point (of a total of 5 for this practical portion of the course) shall be evaluated on the basis of formal aspects, the level of reasoning and reflection, and the sources consulted (bibliography and webliography).

4. Methodology, learning tasks, syllabus and resources

4.1. Methodological overview

This course combines large group task with individual task. General contents of the course will be presented in large group sessions will be worked on deeper in the practice sessions by case studies, reviews of books or articles closely related to the course, debate, group dynamics and other techniques that allow the assimilation of the theoretical and practical contents of the course. The course will combine in a harmonious way expository-participative methods with other more practical.

Training Activity

4.2. Learning tasks

The teaching methods to be used in the learning activities will mainly consist of lectures sessions, active learning methodologies, portfolio work, oral presentation, debate and discussion of work, real case studies, simulations and role-playing, practical classes in the computer room, and both face-to-face and online tutorials, mainly telematic tutorials by e-mail.

At least four evaluable practical activities will be required throughout the academic period, these activities correspond to the practical part of the course, consisting of 2 ECTS. Each activity will have a duration of 20 hours of dedication of individual work, directed work and face-to-face team work during the teaching period.

4.3. Syllabus

The contents are specified in the following modules and topics:

Module 1. Educational guidance processes.

Topic 1. Introduction to psychological processes in educational guidance

• Psychological processes in educational guidance.
• Collaborative and communicative approach, prevention as a model of intervention.
• The educational center as a field of intervention.
• Challenges of educational guidance in today's society.

Module 2. The process of prevention and evaluation in educational orientation.

Item 2. The prevention process in educational guidance.

• The psycho-affective dimension in the educational orientation process
• Affective development programs and promotion of school coexistence.

Topic 3. The process of psychopedagogical evaluation.

• The process of psychopedagogical evaluation. Protocol and tools.
• The interview in educational orientation.

4.4. Course planning and calendar

The planning of this subject will be posted on the Moodle platform at the beginning of each academic year, completing it as time progresses.
In the first week of the subject, the teacher will communicate in writing or in Moodle the breakdown of tasks included in the evaluation and the delivery schedule for them. The following schedule of basic activities under guided supervision is proposed:
1. Determination of the theme, scope and purpose of the portfolio. It is advisable that the choice of the topic and the scope of the choice of the four evaluable practical activities that will make up the portfolio be carried out during the first two weeks of the second semester.
2. Planning of group tutorials to monitor the preparation of the portfolio.
3. Portfolio progress reports (revision drafts). It will be held in the middle of the semester through group tutorials.
4. Final review of the portfolio. The final version of the portfolio will be delivered at least one week before the official presentation deadline.

4.5. Bibliography and recommended resources

https://psfunizar10.unizar.es/br13/egAsignaturas.php?codigo=63320